She carried with her memories of politics, pashas, ​​and spy tales

Egypt: Naguib Mahfouz's buoys sail forever

  • All floaters have been removed.

    archival

  • Suef goals attacked the removal decision.

    archival

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The decisions to remove the buoys anchored on the Nile shore in western Cairo and adjacent to the neighborhoods of Agouza and Kit Kat have entered into final implementation, due to the deterioration of these buoys, and their pollution of the Nile water, according to the official administrative version.

32 buoys were removed, with the exception of one buoy for humanitarian reasons, according to sources from the Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, despite an opposition campaign that considered the removal decisions a dire threat to Egyptian history and heritage, which these buoys represent.

An expert in the field of Cairo localities told "Emirates Today", "The suspension of the licensing of buoys in Agouza and Kit Kat began since last year, as the buoy before that paid an annual license that amounted to 60,000 pounds in its last phase, where the decision to remove was issued in 2020 and then was It was postponed to July 28, and the owners of the floats were offered to change the activity from the status of real estate owners, to the status of owners of a commercial activity, so that the floats became restaurants and cafes, and thus paid higher fees for the new activity, but they refused.

For her part, writer and novelist Ahdaf Soueif, who lives in one of these buoys, launched a campaign against attempts to remove them, and responded to the official arguments that they polluted the Nile and deteriorated it, by saying that the owners of the buoys renewed them and inserted them into the sewage system, and they did everything that successive administrations requested of them to preserve it.

And “Suef broadcast daily videos on her Facebook page, explaining the facts of what her float is going through, the last of which was a detailed tour inside the house, during which she reviewed her library, her kitchen, the rooms of her grandchildren and their games, her balcony overlooking the Nile and her memories. In the last video, Souef showed practical scenes. The buoy was evacuated, and she seemed strong and coherent, but she could not hide her grief,” according to press follow-ups.

Parliamentarian Amira Saber submitted an invitation to the Egyptian Prime Minister, Minister of Water Resources and Environment to make an urgent statement, in which she said, “She considers these floats as a witness to the times and facts from Egypt’s political, cultural and artistic history, and that she witnessed the birth of artistic figures such as Farid al-Atrash, Muhammad Abd al-Muttalib, and Muhammad AbdulWahab.

These floats were also the scene for stories of spies and political conspiracies, a haven for patriots and politicians, and a headquarters for Egyptian championships, until it was said during the monarchy that if a journalist listened to one of the floats, he would know all the secrets of Egypt.” Hussein Rushdie, the meetings of his governments over four successive ministries from 1914 to 1919 inside one of these floats, according to the memoirs of “Sultana al-Tarab” Munira al-Mahdiyya.

The statement continued, "Since the sixties, governments have taken a number of decisions that led to reducing the number of buoys from 600, to the limits of 30 buoys now, through the decision to transfer a number of them in the sixties, and the decision to stop issuing licenses for new buoys in 2006. With this, governments remained The successive years continue to issue annual licenses that allow the residents of these buoys to use them for life.”

illegal

The statement said that "the government bases its argument on the alleged illegality of these buoys and their polluting the Nile waters."

We also point out that the government's granting of annual usufruct licenses undermines the government's argument.

As for the reference to the pollution and distortion of these buoys to the Nile River, this in itself does not require their removal, but rather the government must fine their owners and correct the situation.

Accordingly, we ask for an immediate correction of the situation by stopping the removal decision, and examining the possibility of transferring residents to alternative housing, and preserving that chapter of the history of the city of Cairo.”

The study stated that "one of the most famous floats is that of the Lebanese artist, Badia Masabni, who married Najib Al-Rihani, overlooking the Cairo Sheraton, and was frequented by a number of artists, including the artist Mohamed Abdel Muttalib, and the dancer Tahia Karioka."

The study also touched on “the story of the dancer Hikmat Fahmy, the owner of the famous buoy in Kit Kat, around which stories and television series were woven, as a theater for the hesitation of British soldiers, whom Fahmy was spying on for the Germans.

The late Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat was accused of working with her as part of the national movement’s activity to follow up on the British occupation soldiers, and he was arrested and dismissed from the army at the time.

She also touched on “the residency of the international writer Naguib Mahfouz for a period of 25 years in the float of Hussein Pasha Diab, and his writing of the novel (Gossip over the Nile) in it, and the atmosphere of his trilogy was affected by it, as his most famous character, Mr. secretly, while living his public life as a committed merchant.”

The floats bear witness to the times and facts from Egypt's political, cultural and artistic history.

The international writer Naguib Mahfouz resided for 25 years in Awama Hussein Pasha Diab, and wrote his novel “Gossip over the Nile” in it.

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